Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963) is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. Once a champion in the amateur ranks, he became a professional skater following the 1988 season.

Boitano is probably best remembered for winning the much celebrated Battle of the Brians over Canadian Brian Orser at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Heading into the final free skating portion of the competition (worth 50% of the overall total), Boitano had a slight lead over Orser, but the lead was so minuscule that the winner of the free skate was guaranteed to win the gold medal. Boitano went on to skate the performance of his life and win the gold, landing 8 triple jumps including two triple axels and a triple flip-triple toe loop combination. The performance is considered to be among the very best in the history of the sport, which is particularly impressive given the pressure of the Olympic Games as well as intense media scrutiny surrounding the Battle of the Brians. To this day, the Sports Illustrated cover featuring Brian Boitano landing his second triple axel of the program marks the only time a male figure skater has appeared on the cover of the magazine.

Following his victory in Calgary as well as another gold medal at the World Championships in Budapest, Boitano turned professional. He went onto dominate competitions in the professional ranks, winning 10 straight professional competitions, including 5 consecutive World Professional Championship titles and 4 consecutive wins at the Challenge of Champions. During this five-year stretch, Boitano did not make a single technical error in his programs. In June 1993, the International Skating Union (ISU) introduced a clause, known as the "Boitano rule", which allowed professionals to reinstate as 'amateur' or 'eligible' skaters. This had been the result of Boitano's active involvement during the early 90's, which saw professionals being allowed in the Olympic Games in the sports of tennis and basketball. Boitano reinstated to have a crack at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Going into the Olympics as a gold medal favorite among a star-studded field, Boitano uncharacteristically missed his triple axel combination during the short program -- for the first time ever, according to Scott Hamilton -- and this proved extremely costly, knocking Boitano completely out of medal contention. He fought back to finish 6th.

Boitano's signature jump, the Tano triple lutz or simply the Tano, is considered to be the most difficult jump in figure skating. Although triple axels and "quads" (quadruples) are on their face more difficult, the Tano requires the jumper to raise one arm above his head while performing the jump. The fact that one arm is raised dramatically reduces the jumper's angular momentum, making a Tano triple far more difficult than a normal triple.

Career

• 1986 Won the World Championships gold medal
• 1988 Won the World Championships gold medal
• 1988 Won the Winter Olympics gold medal
• 1988-1992, 1994 Won the World Professional Championships gold medal, a total of 6 times

References

A caricature of Brian Boitano as a superhero appears as a recurring character in the irreverent cartoon series South Park. The movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), features a musical number titled What Would Brian Boitano Do?. Mr. Boitano also appears in a 1995 Christmas cartoon that was a prototype of South Park, entitled The Spirit of Christmas.